Marine Le Pen To Appeal Against Conviction For Embezzlement That Means She Cannot Run For French Presidency In 2027

By Bukola Kayode

Marine Le Pen’s lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, has said French far-right leader will appeal against her conviction for embezzlement of public funds.

“We are going to appeal,” he said, adding that the verdict was “a blow to democracy.”

Separately, the National Rally’s spokesperson Laurent Jacobelli said that the Le Pen remained “in a fighting mood.”

The Far -Right leader was banned from running for political office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds, in a politically explosive ruling that has shattered her hopes of winning the presidency in 2027.

A Paris court also handed Le Pen, who was the frontrunner for the next election, a four-year prison sentence with two years suspended, to be served under house arrest, and a €100,000 ($108,000) fine. Le Pen will file an appeal, her lawyer said.

Her party, National Rally (RN), was ordered to pay €2 million in fines for the €4.1 million that it was accused of embezzling

The court’s presiding judge, Bénédicte de Perthuis, held that Le Pen’s actions were a “serious and lasting attack on the rules of democratic life in Europe, but especially in France.” She stated that Le Pen’s immediate ban on standing for office was tied to “democratic public unrest” that would result from the election of a person convicted of embezzlement.

But the decision may lead to a major controversy as Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s protégé who succeeded her as RN’s president, said it was not only Le Pen “who is being unjustly condemned: it is French democracy that is being executed.”